


Foolish Mortal: A Disneyland Story

by leftofhere



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Disneyland - Fandom, Haunted Mansion (Ride), The Ghost Post
Genre: Alternate Universe - Disneyland, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Disney, Disney Multiverse, Disneyland, F/F, Fluff, Haunted mansion, Reverse alternate universe???, The Haunted Mansion, Whimsy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 12:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8207194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftofhere/pseuds/leftofhere
Summary: Maya Harris wasn't always like this. She wasn't always so studious. She wasn't always so . . . cynical. After a childhood of being told to be realistic, though, she wound up here, assessing properties for condemnation.That is, until she stumbles into the Gracey Manor, a towering, ominous home at the end of what seems to be an abandoned street, and her life is changed forever.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is DEFINITELY something that I'm not used to writing, but life has been real garbage lately and I've needed a fun outlet. This was inspired by the news that Disney is going to do some sort of TV show about the Disney Parks--this is sort of my take on that idea, I guess. It's going to be very over-the-top and very extra and I am okay with that. I hope you will enjoy this little adventure as much as I will!

Maya looked at her computer screen. She couldn't really hear the hum it gave off, or the hum the air conditioning gave off, or the hum the fluorescent lights gave off. She'd long since learned to tune that all out by now. She stared at the spreadsheet, checking the numbers in triplicate. She didn't know why. It's not as if they'd changed. That was the problem: they never changed.

She'd been working here for . . . just over two years now? Could that be right? Her years had never been marked with anything, not like a birthday or an anniversary would be. It'd have to be just over two years, though--she'd started just fresh out of college. Two years of spreadsheets. Two years of merciless decisions against once-was homes. Two years of signing papers for demolition or condemnation. Two years of subliminal hum. Two years of no birthdays--two years of no, well, no anniversaries.

What she needed was a breath of fresh air--no, no, what she needed was a coffee. She needed a coffee. Maya stood up front her desk, stretching as much as she could without drawing attention to herself. She walked to the tiny office kitchen and sighed heavily when she saw that the pot was empty. At 3:30PM, it wasn't worth making a whole new pot, even with as much as she wanted some. She crossed her arms and tried to see the silver lining in her lack of caffeine. No coffee meant she wouldn't be up all night. She could go to bed early. Get some decent sleep. That was good, right? Wasn't it? Coffee wasn't the  _only_ thing she looked forward to about being here, was it?

Maya looked over her shoulder when she heard footsteps approach. At first, the sound panicked her. She felt like she was being caught for having such a dubious thought for an employee. She sighed with relief to see Jamie in the doorway instead of their boss. Jamie looked at the empty coffee pot and crossed her arms as well.

"No point in making a fresh pot now that it's 3:30, huh?" Jamie asked with a sad smile.

Maya shrugged. "At least the caffeine won't keep us up at night?"

Jamie chuckled. "Right. Just the, you know, dread of another work day," Jamie said under her breath. Maya had to suppress her laugh.

Jamie walked back through the doorway to her tiny cubicle. Maya watched her, still debating about making another pot of coffee. In a few seconds, though, she followed and went back to her own desk. She could feel eyes on her as she sat back down. She knew the feel of that stare. There was only stare that felt so much like there was a shark in her presence. She counted the seconds to see how long he'd take today. The footsteps towards her desk started at 3 and 7. He must have something really  _special_ for her today. It usually took at least until she'd been sitting for ten whole seconds for her to pounce at her.

When the last footstep padded against the speckled beige carpet, Maya looked up with the best smile she could manage.

"Maya!" her Dave said with honeyed enthusiasm. His white teeth shone against his leathery tan hide. His pale blue shirt both contrasted, making him more orange, and complemented, bringing out the veins of age he tried so desperately to hide. The man had never studied a color wheel, clearly. Not that Maya was surprised. "Crazy weather we've been having, isn't it?"

Her smile became more strained. "It's been about eighty--that's pretty normal for this part of California, isn't it?"

She hated that she phrased it like a question. She'd lived in California for years. She didn't need to ask him--not for anyone's sake but his.

"But it's October! High time for sweater weather, am I right?" He laughed, and Maya laughed with him regardless of the lack of a setup  _or_ a punchline. "Anyway. Back to business! You don't have any plan tonight, do you? You know you're always my go-to gal with night calls, and we do appreciate it! Now I know you're a busy girl, but we've got one of those rare calls from the census coming in. Something about a property down in Anaheim that hasn't been looked at or recorded in decades now. Just slipped under the radar, apparently--government offices, am I right? You know how those guys are. Always slacking! Anyway, point is, they're cashing in a favor I owe them and I promised to put my best gal on the job. Can you take a short drive tonight, check out if the place even still exists?"

Maya kept herself silent through his usual monologue. She had to remind herself several times that she needed this job to afford her rent, and that really, he was right. She wasn't busy. She'd take care of the job. She always did.

"Sure, Dave," she said, keeping the disappointment in her voice to as much of a minimum as she could manage. "What's the address?"

"Well, here's the strange thing," he said. "We don't have an address. We have kind of a, um, general  _area_. You'll have to do some searching. All we know is that it's some old estate up on a hill at the end of some old street. There shouldn't be much there--it seems like it was all farm land. Apparently there's some big tree? I'll forward you the email I got. Thanks again! You're a gem."

Across the room, Maya could hear Jamie stifling a laugh into a cough. An email popped up in Maya's email. It was from Jamie. The subject line was a simple, "Ugh." The body was just a picture of a kitten in a basket and the words, "Hope your night is more exciting than your day has been."

* * *

 

The drive from Glendale to Anaheim was as bad as it usually was. Maya tried to pass the time with some standard music from the radio, but she wasn't really paying attention to it. She wasn't really paying attention to anything other than the traffic and the regret of not making another pot of coffee. She was so tired. Had she always been this tired all the time?

She followed the vague directions into what was once Anaheim farmland. Most of it had been built on, now, but not quite to the extent of L.A. Still, there wasn't any actual  _farm_ she could think of anymore. She followed the streets, turning at the appropriate landmarks given by the email. When she got to Harbor, she almost didn't notice what she was driving along. There was a glare from the sun to her side, making it hard to see--or maybe she was tired and it was hard to focus--or maybe she just had a headache--

But then, suddenly, she saw it as she turned the corner onto Katella. There it was, plain as day, a massive gate surrounding the entire . . . block? Acre? it was so massive, it was hard to tell. Whoever left this estate must have been  _loaded._ She didn't see any "old street" that the email was talking about, but this had to be the estate. What else could this have held than some old manor? She could see the tree, massive and a little tropical, peeking out over the gate's edge. This had to be it.

She parked her car on the street. There wasn't anybody around, no pedestrians in sight. Did they even  _see_ this place? Weren't the curious? And how the hell was she going to get in?

She peered into the massive iron gates, still not sure any of this was real. There was a wide strip on lawn that had gone brown and a building behind it, up on a little hill. She got out her phone and checked the picture from the email. That building definitely wasn't pointy enough to be the one she was looking for. But what was it, then? It wasn't her business. She was looking for the building in the picture, and this wasn't it, and that meant she would be trespassing if she continued.

"This is silly," she said out loud, so quiet it was almost inaudible. She took a step forward.

"This is  _stupid,_ " she said, putting a single finger on the gate.

"This is a waste of time," she said, applying pressure to the gate. When it creaked open, she immediately pulled her hand away. She looked quickly to each of her sides, but there was still nobody around. She put her hand on the gate and slowly pushed it open. Tentatively, she stepped inside.

 


End file.
